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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Well, I’m assuming Russell Baze has some problems. We all do and there's barely enough booze to deal with it. And jockeys, lordy lordy, have some STUFF to deal with. You have to applaud Animal Planet. What subset of athlete is more interesting than jockeys? If HBO had a reality show the likes of Hard Knocks for jockeys, I think horse racing could get a ratings boost. Onward …

Baze knows this 50,000 times over.

This past weekend, aboard a horse named Finish Rich in NYC (c’mon, Finish Rich in NYC? This is one of the more unintentionally insensitive names for a horse. I’m extending this name to Wall Street, but, for all I know, the horse is owned by a falafel cart owner.)

Baze is 37 years into his riding career and rides every day with the passion and energy of a rider looking to earn his chops. Fifty thousand mounts in 37 years, that’s 1,351 per year. He’s won 11,839 races, for a 37-year win percentage of 24 percent. That’s very DRFese, but you handicapping-types get that.

To give you an idea of how long he’s been at it, just read this: Baze took his first mount during the administration of Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau. I mean, how old does that make you feel?

Jesus was just 1,975 years old.

The Death Star hadn’t even been built yet. More accurately, we weren’t aware of its having been built until 1978. Until the intrepid intergalactic journalism of moonraker George Lucas, we would still have no idea what was going on above us a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. (Frankly, I’d like something more concrete, say in 346 years ago in the Andromeda Galaxy 2.5 light years away, but that’s just the reporter in me.)

Baze has the type of records and accolades that will never be surpassed. He came from an era of a sounder racehorse and an era of smaller purses.

It reminds me an awful lot of golf. The era where Nicklaus, Palmer, and Player played, they played because they needed to, they won because they had to. They needed purse winnings to pay for food, travel, and family. They won because losing meant going to the car dealership to apply for a job or bag groceries at the Food Lion.

Nowadays, thanks to Eldrick Woods, who won The Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines Monday, the purses are astronomical. The FIO had a purse of $6.1 million. Eighty-three players made the cut. So, 83 golfers receive an average payout of $73,493. Instead of having to win these tournaments to get paid, all they have to do is finish 83rd and they will likely get anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 for four days worth of work. Not to mention free clubs, shoes, gloves, and apparel (yes, I know they have to pay for travel, but if a golfer makes five cuts over the course of a 52 weekends, they can clear $100,000.)

Today’s jockeys enjoy a similar bounty, though not quite to the extreme of golfers. Jockeys at smaller tracks routinely make several hundred to several thousand dollars a day.

Because of this, what will the motivation be for a jockey to amass experience the likes of Baze? More importantly, with death and debilitation just a cannon bone away, why hang on for so long when the risk becomes reckless?

What will keep them around won’t be the money. It will be the drug-like addiction to piloting an animal 10 times heavier than they, to harnessing a carnal power woven into their DNA that knows no price tag. The end game awaits. It only ends once, everything until then is just the rush.

I don’t know what the message is here, but I am many years older than Baze and had wagered on numerous races before Baze was ‘legged up’ on his first mount. Mr. Baze is a terrific jockey, though I don’t believe I ever wagered on a horse he was piloting (I conclude that he is terrific by his record).

Times have changed, Mr. O’Meara. Ted Williams used to automatically sign a contract for the next year for $125,000. Gas prices back when I wasn’t yet thrown out of high school was 19 cents to 23 cents per gallon (1951-53).

Are athletes better today than thirty years ago? Yes, by far! Are ticket prices to major league baseball and professional football the same as they were thirty years ago?

Your message seems to be that things are easier today for athletes; that they didn’t have to suffer, to scrounge, to practice harder to gain the monetary advantage they now enjoy.

Years ago sporting events did not produce the revenue that is attained today.

Today the money is there for television contracts with sporting events to offer huge purses. Fact of life, progress?

Well, pick up a baseball bat, a football, a golf club and practice; then go after the loot that seems to be available to the athletes that apparently are the best today. I would like to be a jockey at a racetrack that falls below the radar of turf writers and be pocketing $200 upwards per mount per day.

Maybe the ‘fans’ of sporting events should refuse to pay the exorbitant prices for tickets currently being asked by sport franchises; then, perhaps, all will return to the so-called glorious days of the fifties and sixties, when an athlete won a sporting even and received a few bucks for winning.

Who is to blame for the escalation in wealth achieved by the most skilled athletes in their profession? The people who willingly pay the price for the ticket to watch them make money.

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In your previous commentary you mentioned a Honda.
I can assure you that the vehicle has been fully depreciated for several years.

As to booze for one on a limited budget, I suggest Genesee Cream Ale; a fine ale that is cheap and delivers good taste and will mellow ya; and a product in your vicinity.

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